Chesney performs at Gillette Stadium.
Kenny Chesney recently wrapped his No Shoes Nation Tour with two nights at Massachusetts’ Gillette Stadium, bringing the crowds totaling 109,207 people on their feet, singing along with the entertainer’s two hour-plus set.
To celebrate the milestone, the Kraft family had a Super Bowl-style banner hung permanently near an end zone to commemorate the naming of the No Shoes Nation in 2012. The blue and white vertical flag rippled in the wind as Chesney and his band ran through a 27-song set that included guest appearances from tourmates Kacey Musgraves, the Eli Young Band, and Eric Church for the current single “When I See The Bar.”
“It’s an incredible life,” Chesney says. “Looking over and seeing all those faces, it was like ‘When I See This Bar’ was happening right there on stage right… and having Eric sing it with me, a guy who knows what it means to punch it out in a little dive bar with nobody there, well, that’s everything that song is! And everybody’s been there.”
Being the end of tour, there were several additional surprise “guests.” NoShoesRadio.com’s Mark Tamburino free-rapped “Blister in the Sun,” while production steward Robin Majors blew some tasty harp on the set closing “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy.”
It was an acoustic debut of “Happy On the Hey Now,” considered to be the emotional center of Chesney’s recent album Life On A Rock, that quieted the second evening’s nearly 55,000 fans. Never played in concert, it was a starkly acoustic debut for the song written about living in the moment, the sudden loss of a dear friend and the preciousness of what is shared with friends.
“I was a little nervous about doing a song so quiet and so personal in a venue that big,” Chesney said. “But so many of the people who were part of that song were there… I knew those fans were just as much a part of my life, and I wasn’t going to see them again until 2015… and I wanted something to bind us all together. It was a risk, and when I saw all the lighters and cell phones with flames aloft, I knew it was the right decision.”
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